


a blinded fool

by crackedeggie



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 12:30:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13501714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crackedeggie/pseuds/crackedeggie
Summary: Mercy and Moira meet for the first time in years in unusual circumstances. And slowly develop feelings for each other.





	a blinded fool

**Author's Note:**

> This is a real simple and short meet-"cute" of Mercy/Moira. I wanted to explore the idea of them meeting during a turbulent time of Overwatch. More so, I wanted to follow the shifts in these two characters. I might do a follow up but I enjoy how short it is. Hope you enjoy!

There were whispers starting to circulate. Whispers about Blackwatch. Honestly, the idea of this organization existing as a branch from Overwatch made Dr. Ziegler uncomfortable. Was it ethical to keep working with Overwatch if this…Blackwatch actually existed? She shook her head as she arrived to work. She had to remind herself that these were only rumours. Rumours meant to discredit Overwatch. There was no actual concrete evidence that supported these rumours. Angela sighed. She was creating problems in her head. After all she wasn’t entirely comfortable with Overwatch’s militaristic approach to keeping peace. Maybe she wanted a justified exit. 

She stepped into her lab and removed her jacket. As Angela slipped her lab coat on, she noticed an additional one hanging. A name tag attached. Moira O’Deorain. It had been awhile since she had seen that name or her face around Overwatch. Had that lab coat been hanging around for awhile and she had only just now noticed it? Angela squeezed her temples. She hadn’t noticed Moira in the halls or even in the lab. It was hard to miss her scarlet hair. Angela quickly booted up her computer and — there was nothing about Dr.O’Deorain joining the lab. She’d have to ask Commander Morrison later if she was receiving an addition to her current team. 

Dr. Ziegler grabbed her notes from the last mission and headed towards the meeting room. Maybe after the meeting she would have a chance to ask.

—

“Commander?” Dr. Ziegler had waited until everyone had left the room.

The other Commander, Reyes, also lingered. “Commander Morrison would you happen to spare a moment? I just have a question about my staff,” Dr. Ziegler continued and hoped that Reyes would get the hint. Which he did. 

“I just wanted to ask if there’s been a new hire to my team? I just haven’t received any notification.” Dr. Ziegler asked once the door was shut. 

The Commander frowned. “I’m sorry Doctor but I don’t believe there has been a new hire. Is that…all that you wanted to ask?” Morrison looked tired. He didn’t have the energy for something like this. Not right now. Not after the heat Overwatch was receiving. 

Maybe it was just an old name tag? Or maybe she had misread the name tag? “Oh no worries Commander! I must have just misread something! Take care of yourself.” 

—

Dr. Ziegler quickly went back to lab to double check. She opened up the closet and it was gone. The entire lab coat was gone. Her stomach started twisting in knots. Angela didn’t think she needed to hold onto it. She thought it had made some sort of sense to include Moira into her team. Her research into genetics had been widely discussed and quite intricate. There were parts that even she had a hard time following. Why would they want to keep Moira’s involvement a secret? Even from herself? 

Unless she was involved with Blackwatch. But maybe she was just being paranoid.

—

After a couple of weeks Dr.Ziegler had almost forgotten about the name tag incident until she walked in on Dr.O’Deorain tinkering with some device in her lab. 

“Ah, good morning Dr. Ziegler,” Moira had said while still focused on her weapon. 

“I— good morning Dr. O’Deorain,” Angela was a bit speechless. She wasn’t sure what was the appropriate reaction to…this situation.

“What are you doing in my lab?” 

“Classified.”

Fair enough. Half the organization was working on something classified. 

“Are we working together?” Angela inquired. It seemed like a fair question. 

Moira looked up at her and gave her a small grin. “In a way.” 

“Well could you go and work on your weapon elsewhere? This lab isn’t meant for those types of weapons.” Angela was starting to get frustrated.

“This weapon is going to help both of us.” 

Angela highly doubt that. She felt extremely uncomfortable with any new weapons being engineered in her lab. This was something that she had clearly informed Commander Morrison.

“How would it help?”

“Well the entire idea is that it breaks down the basic components of a biological creature and incapacitates them. Think brittle bones as an example,” Moira calmly explained, still fixated on her weapon. 

Dr. Ziegler felt sick. She wanted to tear it from her hands and destroy it.

Moira looked up at Angela and thought it was curious the doctor was so tongue tied over a really simplistic device. Simplistic in the sense that it only tagged specific individuals and not masses of innocent bystanders. 

“Is there a problem Doctor?” 

Angela flushed, “Yes. That’s an atrocious weapon. In my lab we foc—“

“Dr. Ziegler I am not directly working with you. And this is a shared lab now.” Moira responded.

“I’m going to go talk to Commander Morrison and have this all sorted out. I am not comfortable with you—“ 

“I highly doubt you will. Mostly because, there is no evidence of me actually working in your lab.” Moira smirked. “You can’t touch me Dr. Ziegler.” 

“Why wouldn’t—“ Angela stopped her question. Morrison didn’t know about her. Moira had only revealed herself to Angela. 

“You left your lab coat here on purpose.”

Moira shrugged. “I did. I wanted the chance to talk with you. Maybe share some ideas on how you’ve become so competent on healing such intricate complexities. I had been hoping that perhaps we could team up together. I think we could do wonderful work.” 

“No.” Angela was out of there. She wasn’t going to listen to another word. She was done with this conversation. She didn’t care if this was classified or Blackwatch or literally anything else. She wasn’t going to be directly involved with anything meant to harm people.

She felt Moira’s hand grasp her right hand. “Aren’t you even going to hear me out?” 

Dr. Ziegler wrenched her hand away. “You know Doctor, I read your paper. Years ago. And I remembered admiring it solely on the basis on how much good it could do. How many diseases it could heal. If you want to talk about that we could absolutely discuss it. Anything else — I’m not interested.” 

Moira nodded. “That sounds like a great dinner talk.” 

—

The two of them actually had a decent dinner together. The talk went as well as Angela had hoped. They discussed in depth about Moira’s paper and how that had really complicated her career. Angela felt pity on how her reputation had been ruined. All these assumptions. These rumours.

“It’s true, I did want to advance certain elements in the human condition, but I didn’t know how far I could go with it. Or exactly what venue I wanted to take. I truly believe that there’s a need for advancing our ways to heal and to protect.” Moira explained. 

“I still don’t think violence is necessary.”

“Truly? You work for Overwatch. An organization that was created precisely to fight against the Omnics. Or even before that, what about the World Wars? Violence is sometimes needed to stop violence.” 

Angela grimaced. Even though there was an apparent logic to that, she still felt comfortable with it. Which was really unfortunate as she had really been enjoying her time with Moira. 

“My work in Overwatch is to use my own abilities to help others,’’ Angela responded. 

“Then why is your Valkyrie suit equipped with a gun?”

Angela narrowed her eyes. “That’s—.” She didn’t know how to respond. This was classified information. 

Moira chuckled. She thought Dr. Ziegler was fascinating. So willing to put her own life and morals on the line for the sake of aiding others. “My apologies.” 

“Excuse me,” Angela needed to shake this off. She headed for the bathroom and allowed herself the chance to breathe. Moira was giving her a lot to reflect over, some of which made her uncomfortable. Angela splashed some water over her face. She headed back to the table where Moira was staring out the window. 

“I had meant no disrespect Dr. Ziegler,” Moira apologized.

“It’s fine. I have complicated feelings about the work I do,” Angela replied honestly.

The rest of their chats were quite tame which was a relief for Angela. Their evening ended soon after and they parted separate ways, each wishing the other the very best. 

— 

It had been three weeks since Angela had that dinner with Moira. No sight of her. No lab coat. No new experimentations. It almost felt like she had deserted the lab. She convinced herself that it didn’t matter. (Why would it matter anyway?) 

She came into her lab early one weekend to finish up a few loose ends from recent missions. When she entered, Moira was passed out in front of a few beakers. Relief temporarily washed over her until she noticed scars around her hands. Those were fresh. Angela quickly grabbed a potent cream and placed it beside Moira. That noise was enough for Moira snap awake and quickly pull out of her pistol, directing it at Angela. When she recognized Angela, she quickly put down her gun. 

“My apologies Doctor. I was…having some intense dreams,” Moira explained, looking almost guilty.

“Angela is just fine, Moira,” She gently responded. She had a hunch Moira had just come back from a mission. Angela sat beside Moira. “I have some cream that will help with the wounds on your hands. Here.” She slid the container closer to her. 

Moira remained quiet as she applied the cream. Much quieter than before. 

“Are you okay?” Angela inquired softly. 

Moira burst out laughing. “That’s your question? Of all questions?” 

Angela frowned. “Well obviously I have other questions but I’m assuming the answer to them is anything from classified to don’t-want-to-talk-about-it.” 

Moira nodded her head. “Fair enough. I’m….mostly okay. There were a few things that I didn’t quite account for that cost me. But…that’s to be expected.”

“Would you like to discuss that?”

Moira chuckled softly, “As much as I wish I could, it’s beyond me.” 

“I kind of missed you Dr. O’Deorain.”

“I kind of missed you too Dr. Ziegler.”

—

The next day Angela came in and found Moira passed out on the floor. She rushed towards her checking all her vital signs. Moira seemed okay. Angela rolled her onto her back and took a closer look at her head. Small bump. Well, incidentally she did have a salve for that. When she stood up she noticed the document on table. Strange blueprints of a machine she didn’t quite understand. There was a photo attached to a file. A photo of Moira in the field with….was that Commander Reyes? What association did they have? Could they both be—

A groan came from the floor. Angela quickly left the photos and prints where she had found them. She opened up a cabinet and took out the salve. 

“Morning Moira,” Angela said gently. 

Moira’s shoulders tensed before she quickly turned around to find Angela walking towards her. “Here’s a bit of cream for your bump.”

“I appreciate it,” Moira responded. Angela sat on the floor beside her. “I’m experiencing some side effects with the equipment I’m working on.” 

“It took me awhile to really fine tune Valkyrie. I definitely remember how draining it was at the beginning,” Angela shared. “Why don’t you take a break tonight and we could get another dinner?”

“No, I need to keep working on this,” Moira declined. 

“Moira…it’s okay to take a break. Sometimes that’s what you need before a breakthrough you know?” Angela offered. She wanted to help her somehow. Despite the differences in moral stances, Moira was still human and stubborn and—- and that’s it.

—

The following day Angela was approached by Commander Reyes. Normally they have nothing to do with each other, so she was unsure what he was going to talk to her about.

“We need to talk, Dr. Ziegler,” Commander Reyes instructed. Angela would much rather deal with Morrison than Reyes. Reyes just made her uncomfortable. “Take a seat.”

What a bland empty room. No windows. Reyes slapped a folder in front of her. “I know you are aware of Moira and her participation in Blackwatch.”

Angela barely blinked. “Excuse me? I’m not sure I follow.”

Reyes laughed. “Oh don’t play so coy Doctor. It’s really beneath you.”

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to accuse me of Commander,” Angela grimaced. 

“See it’s interesting, that you don’t follow when there’s clear evidence that says otherwise,” Reyes continued as he slowly started pulling photos from the folder. Photos of her and Moira in the lab and at dinner and—

It hit her. He was blackmailing her. 

“It would be a shame for these photos to come to light especially with all these whispers about Blackwatch.” 

Angela remained quiet. She wasn’t sure what to say. This was because she had seen that photo of Reyes. Unlike the Commander, she had been unwise by leaving the photo. She had no counter. 

“Dr. Ziegler you are awfully quiet for someone being accused of criminal association.”

“What do you want from me?” Angela finally asked. 

“Silence. That’s it.” Reyes replied. “One word of this to anyone, even Morrison, and I release your photos with Dr. O’Deorain. One word and both of you go down.”

He would ruin both of their reputations in order to save his own. What a fucking coward. 

“I understand,” Angela agreed. She couldn’t think of what to do next.

—

After her meeting with Reyes she headed back to her lab to find Moira tinkering away again. Her chest swelled up in — excitement, yes of seeing her close colleagu— friend. 

“Hey gorgeous,” Moira greeted her with a wink. 

“Hello Doctor.”

Moira left her tools and sauntered over, pressing her against the wall. Angela’s throat constricted and her heart started racing a bit faster. 

“M-Moira?” This was new. She had never acted like this before. 

“I’m celebrating.”

“Celebrating?”

“I think I figured it out. I think I worked out all the kinks in my set up thanks to you.” Moira kissed Angela and brought her closer. Angela wrapped her arms around Moira’s neck and submitted to her own feelings of lust. Fuck. She didn’t know what she had done, but damn this felt good.


End file.
